I'VE BEEN SO BAD....

..........ABOUT BLOGGING! IT HAS JUST BEEN CRAZY BUSY! BETWEEN ALL THE SHOWS AND MAKING THINGS, AND KEEPING THE SHOP FULL, AND.....LIFE! WELL, ALL I CAN SAY IS SORRY. AND NOW, IN JUST 29 MINUTES, I LEAVE FOR THE AIRPORT TO BOARD A BIG AIRPLANE THAT IS GOING TO TAKE ME ACROSS THE POND TO HOLIDAY IN ENGLAND FOR THREE WEEKS.IF IT WEREN'T FOR THIS GAL, MARY, I WOULD NOT HAVE MADE IT. SHE IS GREAT, AND WE HAVE VERY SIMILAR TASTES. BTW, THIS IS OUR NEW SHOP SIGN. I BOUGHT AN OLD HEADBOARD AND MARY TRANSFORMED IT INTO THIS WONDERFUL SIGN. SHE WILL ALSO KEEP THINGS RUNNING SMOOTHLY WHILE I'M GONE. THANKS, MARY.

SINCE I HAVE NOT BEEN BLOGGING LATELY, AND WILL PROBABLY NOT BE ABLE TO FOR ANOTHER THREE WEEKS, I DECIDED TO CONTINUE THE GIVE-AWAY UNTIL I GET BACK. SO, ALL YOU LOVELY BLOGGERS, I WILL LOOK FORWARD TO CATCHING UP WITH ALL OF YOU SOON. TOOTLES!

AND NOT TO BE FORGOTTEN.........

THESE SHOULD HAVE BEEN INCLUDED IN THE PREVIOUS POST! THESE ARE SOME TEENY, DARLING LITTLE QUAIL EGGS THAT WERE GIFTED TO ME BY CHRIS. SHE KNOWS HOW MUCH I LOVE NESTS AND BIRDS AND WAS GENEROUS ENOUGH TO SHARE THESE WITH ME! THANK YOU, CHRIS. I LOVE THESE ADORABLE LITTLE THINGS.

KANE FLEA MARKET...ALL I CAN SAY IS WOW!!!!!!!!

LAST WEEK-END WAS KANE AND IT WAS SUPER FANTABULOUS!!!!! It just keeps on getting better and better! All of my dealer friends were there and some dealers that I've know for a long time but had lost touch with. One of those dealers that was new to Kane this month was JO MARIE. SHE HAD GREAT STUFF AND WAS BLOWN AWAY BY HER SALES. JOE USED TO SELL OUT OF AN OLD BARN AND A LOT OF HER CUSTOMERS FOUND HER AGAIN AT KANE AND WERE OVER JOYED AND SHOWED IT! My sales were like wise amazing and I also get to visit with customers, some new and some that I've known for a long time, and let me tell you, they are all dear people!.....................I bought this great old tin picnic basket from DIANE P. She said when she bought it she thought of me. it is the greatest piece and, for now a keeper! Someone, years ago, embellished this beauty with crochet thin rope. THANK YOU, DIANE.

Shown here is a beautiful bevy of tiny bottles that once contained essential oils. Mostly rose and florals, and they still retain the most wonderful, faint fragrance that makes you feel happy! These were from my friend, JANICE K. She also was delighted with the response that she received at Kane. Way to go, JANICE, you sweet girl! These will probably be made into necklaces somewhere down the road.

And last, but not least, is this wonderful vintage lace that was gifted to me by the sweet Lynn B. Since she makes such fantastic pillows and adornments, her gift was so generous, because she uses lace like this in her designs! You have to see her talent @ www.teacupstitches.blogspot.com. Thank you Lynn! It was so nice to visit with you

A GIVE-AWAY AND A BIG THANK YOU

First of all, I want to thank all of you sweeties out there that helped me to figure out how to delete comments. The trash can was right there, waiting to be used! how easy is that?! So, thank you for being so kind with your advice.....Then i want to give away this wonderful book by Sandra Evertson. With paper flowers being so popular right now, I thought someone might be interested in learning how to make some of the amazing paper flowers in this book. There are 125 pages full of patterns and instructions. All you have to do is leave comments! the drawing is right after Mothers Day. As usual, for every comment, there is a tag made out with your name on it. And for you sweet gals that pointed out to me how to delete comments, you already have 3 slips with your name on it!AREN'T THESE AMAZING!

THEY'RE PAPER FOR GOODNESS SAKES!

KANE CO. FLEA MARKET WAS BUSY AND BUSTLING TODAY! I'M BRINGING A FEW MORE THINGS FOR TOMORROW AND THEN I WILL START WORKING ON ANOTHER GARDEN SHOW THAT WILL TAKE PLACE IN OAKBROOK, IL. ON MAY 22nd. (DETAILS IN ANOTHER UPCOMING POST.) ALSO, IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS, I JUST HAVE TO SHOW YOU WHAT I BOUGHT FROM 2 OF MY DEALER FRIENDS AND SOMETHING THAT WAS GIFTED TO ME BY A VERY SWEET AND TALENTED LADY! SO, STAYED TUNED AND GET THOSE COMMENTS ROLLIN' IN!

H.E.L.P.

I AM GOING TO DO A REGULAR POST TOMORROW, WITH A GIVE AWAY, BUT FOR NOW I NEED HELP! ONCE IN A WHILE I GET THESE FUNKY COMMENTS ON A POST THAT ARE ALL JUST BOXES AND SOME OTHER STUPID SYMBOLS. I REALLY DON'T GET IT! IT'S SUCH A SMARMY THING TO DO!

MY PROBLEM IS ...HOW DOES ONE DELETE JUST ONE COMMENT, OR BETTER YET, BLOCK THESE IDIOTS FROM EVER READING ANOTHER POST! I KNOW HOW TO DO A LOT OF THINGS, BUT EASILY CRUISING AROUND THE INTERNET IS NOT ONE OF THEM! IF ANY OF YOU ALL HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

MANY, MANY THANKS.

I SAID I WOULD SO............

I've uploaded a few photos of my set-up at the Ice House Mall in Barrington, IL, that runs thru Sunday. I wouldn't say there were record crowds on Thursday, but it was steady all day. For me, cloches, plants, silver plate and my nature pillow covers seemed to be popular. With misc. this and that of course. So......... if anyone lives close by, there is still plenty of time to enjoy the offerings at the Ice House. Also, there are many upscale retail shops there that have great merchandise. Gotta run now....be back in a few!

This is a last minute little thing. I wanted to make a nest wind chime, and I couldn't find my rusty old keys, so I used some rusty old belt buckles instead. Surprisingly, the sound they make is really pleasant!

BACK BY POPULAR REQUEST......

........JUST KIDDING! (though I have had some e-mails from blog friends who wondered if I was o.k.) Anyway, I wasn't going to post these pictures because they were taken quickly and did not turn out to well, but then it occurred to me that my blog friends are used to my lack of camera skills! These are some accordion folders that I altered with music sheet covers and screen printing. If I do say so myself, I liked how they turned out. If you look real close on the right side of this picture, you can see the side of the folder. So, because the folder expands, one can stuff it with lots and lots of notes and ideas that will rarely get looked at, but at least you will know where they are if you can remember where you stored the folder!

This is the top of an old cake pan cover that I screen printed and added chalk board paint to.

Yesterday I set up for the garden show at the Ice House Mall in Barrington, IL. Tonite is the premier opening that will benefit Hospice, and then the show will continue thru Sunday. if I remember to take my camera, I will shoot some photos cause I think the set up is interesting.....So, dear friends, i will see you in a few days.

HARD AT WORK

Sorry I've been away so long. I have two garden and antique shows and one flea market to get ready for. They are all going to happen in the next five weeks, so I have been hard at work preparing, altering, creating, cleaning, buying and packing. Oh, and pricing! ( The thing I hate to do...it takes so long!) Not to mention the attention that the shop needs, and this week I will only have one day off as partner, Mary is going out of town. BOO~HOO!~~~~~~~~~~~But then, after all of this hard work, I get to have a holiday! And guess where? England of course! (Ya'll knew the answer to that one!)...BTW, IF YOU WANT TO SEE SOME GORGEOUS SITES OF THE AREA THAT I AM GOING TO IN ENGLAND, JUST GO TO WWW.VIRTUAL-SHROPSHIRE.UK.CO. Or google Shropshire, U.K.~~~~~~~~~So, the following pics are just some of the things I've been working on. I love the fabric flowers on stems! They never need water!

JUST MESSING AROUND

I just love silk screening! I love the texture that is created when the paints are forced through the screen! i also love it that one can create original designs. I'm sure in time I will tire of this new toy, but for now I love messing around with it.........I found this wonderful, really shabby, window over the week-end. I really liked that it had old white paint on the window panes and when I looked at it I knew instantly what I wanted to do with it. The fern and Queen Ann's lace stencils were made from some prints that Dawn, from the Feathered Nest blog site shared with us. They were exactly what I was looking for! Thank you, Dawn! The birds and nest were already in my file of SS. stencils.....I'M GETTING READY FOR A GARDEN & ANTIQUES SHOW AT THE ICE HOUSE IN BARRINGTON, IL. IT BEGINS APRIL 22 ~25, WITH A " PREVIEW NITE " ON APRIL 21. THE PROCEEDS FROM THIS NITE'S EVENT WILL BENEFIT HOSPICE. ...I will be sharing a large greenhouse room with friends and fellow dealers, Janice Kempf and Diane Passi. They are very upscale dealers, so we should have some wonderful, wonderful antique and garden curiosities for customers! If anyone needs more info, please e-mail me.

Here are a few more pillow designs. In the future, (slap my forehead), I will be making just the pillow covers, per standard sizes, to pare down the shipping charges!

WHITE WEDNESDAY

Do you ever get sidetracked? Happens to me all the time! Every day, several times a day! Just can't help it! I started cleaning out a basket that holds a lot of my yarns and fibers, when I ran across an unfinished project. (A frequent occurrence in my house!) The hubs said "what the heck is that"? (another frequent occurrence in my house!) What it was, was the start of a hat that was crochet out of long strips of fabric. Not wanting to throw it away, I thought it might make a good cover for a houseplant. So I took some twine and stitched folds, willy nilly, on the sides to make it tighter, felted some wool pieces into it and added two sweet heart shaped drawer pulls to make it look more pot like. Now I have a perfect cover for the ugly plastic pot that was disgracing this innocent African violet..........And a big thank you to Kathleen at Faded Charm for hosting WW.

AND THIS IS WHAT ELSE I GOT........

.......from a very sweet dealer friend who decided she had to part with these treasures. I just love old textiles and I can't stop looking at them! This plaster cake topper is very old and beautiful. You would have to see this large awesome rick-rack in person to. It makes you gasp!

Some of this has never been used and most of it is from France.

There is 10 yards of unused Irish linen in this pic!

About a dozen boxes of emb. thread that had never been opened. Am I a lucky girl, or what!!!! Thank you, sweet friend!